Born: March 2nd, 1931
Died: December 6th, 2025
Patrick Cooney served as a cabinet minister in three governments over the course of two decades but he will be remembered most for his time as minister for justice from 1973 until 1977 when he confronted the terror campaign of the Provisional IRA with a calm, implacable resolve.
He developed a strong rapport with taoiseach Liam Cosgrave during the lifetime of that government, despite his involvement in an attempt to remove Cosgrave as party leader in December 1972. He was the last surviving member of the Fine Gael-Labour coalition which held office from 1973 to 1977.
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Although he served in both of Garret FitzGerald’s governments in the 1980s, the two men were often at odds, particularly on issues related to the liberal agenda. Cooney called for a No vote in the divorce referendum of 1986, while all of his government colleagues campaigned for a Yes.
Patrick Mark Cooney was born in Longford on March 2nd, 1931. He was a relation of Sean MacEoin, the Blacksmith of Ballinalee, hero of the War of Independence.
Although he grew up in Athlone in the neighbouring county of Westmeath, his family connection with one of Longford’s most famous sons was a political asset in later years when he contested the Longford Westmeath constituency as a Fine Gael candidate.
After primary school in Athlone he went to secondary school at Castleknock College and on to University College Dublin, where he graduated with a BA before going on to qualify as a solicitor. He practised in his native Athlone.
He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Dáil at three successive general elections – 1961, 1965 and 1969 – but was elected to Westmeath County Council in 1967.
[ Former Fine Gael minister and MEP Paddy Cooney dies aged 94Opens in new window ]
His breakthrough in national politics came in 1970 on the death of Fianna Fáil TD Patrick Lenihan (father of Brian and grandfather of Brian jnr) who was also a native of Athlone. Cooney won the byelection and was immediately plunged into the political drama that engulfed the Dáil in the wake of the Arms Crisis of 1970.
On arrival in the Dáil, Cooney associated himself with the liberal wing of Fine Gael which clustered around Garret FitzGerald and Declan Costello. He reinforced those credentials by taking a prominent role in opposing the Forcible Entry Bill of 1971 which was designed to prevent people squatting in vacant property.
He was appointed the party’s spokesman on justice in 1972 and adopted a strong line in opposition to the Offences Against the State Act which established the non-jury Special Criminal Court to deal with the escalating threat of IRA violence.
“How can he (minister for justice Des O’Malley) come into this parliament and ask it to support a Bill the like of which can only be found on the statute books of South Africa,” he told the Dáil in November 1972. He added for good measure. “There is a limit to the measures a democracy is entitled to adopt in order to protect itself.”
The speech added to his reputation as a liberal within Fine Gael. When party leader Liam Cosgrave made it clear that he intended to support the government’s legislation, Cooney and the majority in his parliamentary party colleagues were on the verge of deposing their leader. The first bombs of the Troubles in Dublin just hours before the vote in December 1972 transformed the situation in Fine Gael and the entire party voted for the legislation.
A few months later, following the victory of the Fine Gael-Labour coalition in the 1973 general election, Cooney was appointed minister for justice by Cosgrave. Over the following four years he took an increasingly tough line on the IRA, not merely implementing but strengthening the legislation he had condemned while in opposition.
There was some surprise when he was appointed a minister in FitzGerald’s second government, first at Defence and then Education. The two men had drifted apart after their close association in the early 1970s, with Cooney increasingly sceptical about the liberal agenda being pursued by FitzGerald
He introduced new security measures as IRA violence escalated with frequent bank robberies and kidnappings of high-profile individuals. Among the most horrific acts of violence were the murders of Fine Gael senator Billy Fox and the British ambassador to Ireland, Christopher Ewart-Biggs.
In 1976 when IRA prisoner Frank Stagg died in England, after 62 days on hunger strike, Cooney refused to allow republicans to take control of the funeral and, in accordance with the wishes of his widow and brother Emmet Stagg, the coffin was buried in the family plot and covered with concrete.
Numerous death threats were made against him during his period in Justice and for many years afterwards, which resulted in Garda protection for him and his family for more than two decades.
One of the first tasks facing him as minister for justice was the drafting of legislation to legalise contraception in Ireland following a Supreme Court ruling that the ban in force since the 1920s was illegal. The Family Planning Bill he introduced was very restrictive by current mores as it limited the availability of contraceptives to married couples, but it generated huge controversy and provoked intense public debate.
The Fine Gael/Labour government agreed to allow TDs of both parties a free vote on the issue, but Fianna Fáil applied the whip and all of the party’s TDs voted against.
Cooney was prepared for that, but not for the sensational development when his own taoiseach Liam Cosgrave, followed by eight Fine Gael TDs, voted against the Bill, ensuring its defeat.
[ What was Ireland like during Liam Cosgrave’s time?Opens in new window ]
Towards the end of that government’s life Cooney was embroiled in controversy following reports in The Irish Times which suggested that a Garda “heavy gang” was using illegal tactics to extract confessions from IRA suspects. Cooney vehemently denied any knowledge of unorthodox Garda activity but refused to establish a public inquiry into the allegations.
The controversy added to the general unpopularity of the Cosgrave government, which lost office in the Fianna Fáil landslide of 1977. Cooney was one of the high-profile casualties losing his Dáil seat in that election.
He was elected to the Seanad later that year and was appointed Fine Gael leader in the Upper House by new party leader Garret FitzGerald. He regained his Dáil seat in the 1981 general election and was appointed minister for posts and telegraphs in the first FitzGerald government.
There was some surprise when he was appointed a minister in FitzGerald’s second government, first at Defence and then Education. The two men had drifted apart after their close association in the early 1970s, with Cooney increasingly sceptical about the liberal agenda being pursued by FitzGerald.
He refused to support the introduction of divorce and insisted on a free vote for government TDs based on the precedent adopted by Liam Cosgrave in 1974 which had torpedoed his own attempts to legislate for contraception.
The referendum bill providing for divorce was introduced by “the parties in government” rather than by the government itself to allow Cooney to voice his opposition to the measure, which he did in a major speech.
Despite that, he was promoted to minister for education for the final year of the FitzGerald government after a botched cabinet reshuffle in which it was widely expected he would be dropped. In the Education portfolio he defused a looming teachers’ strike by cutting a deal with minister for the public service Ruairí Quinn to pay an award which both FitzGerald and his minister for finance John Bruton believed the State could not afford.
He held his seat in the 1987 general election in which many Fine Gael TDs lost out. In 1989 he was elected to the European Parliament for the Leinster constituency and did not contest the Dáil election in that year. He served one term in Europe before retiring from politics in 1994.
In 1996 he took a legal action against the State on the basis that an advertisement for the position of refugee applications commissioner was illegal as it ruled out people over 65 from applying for the post. He was successful and the legislation had to be redrafted as a result.
He also took a number of successful defamation actions against newspapers which insinuated that he had some involvement in the Garda “heavy gang” episode of the 1970s.
He remained a good friend of Peter Barry, despite their occasional disagreements over Northern Ireland. He was close to former Fine Gael TD Fergus O’Brien and the two met at regular intervals for lunch in the members’ restaurant in Leinster House until O’Brien died in 2016.
Patrick Cooney was pre-deceased by his wife, Bridie (née McMenamin) and is survived by his four children, Mark, Michael, Edward and Catherine.
